


Purple Shorts

by jibberjabber13



Series: A Rose by Any Other Name [1]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Light Angst, Mental Health Issues, References to Depression, Spring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 05:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14663939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jibberjabber13/pseuds/jibberjabber13
Summary: Shane wasn't used to having to fill silences—usually, he created them—but the new farmer in town was even less talkative than him, and it was throwing him for a loop. And here she was, standing in his house, asking if he had seen the Mayor's dirty underwear. What was there to say?





	Purple Shorts

If there was one thing Shane didn’t understand, it was why people felt the need to talk constantly. It was as if the people in Pelican Town needed to fill every second of their day with mindless chatter and pointless pleasantries, asking if so-and-so knew that this-and-that had happened the other day and oh my goodness it was just such a shock who could believe it, really. He would rather just get to the point, or even better, not start talking to begin with.

That was why he’d gotten in the habit of ending conversations before they could begin. When he first moved to town, people tried to chat him up in that overly friendly way that all small town villagers have, but they quickly stopped once they realized all they were going to get in return was a grunt or some kind of mumbled insult.

But the new farmer was different. 

She’d moved to town only a season ago and was supposedly the granddaughter of some villager who had lived in the valley years ago. He remembered Lewis had been ecstatic when he heard the news that the descendant of his old drinking buddy was taking ownership of the farm on the west side of town, and he’d gone around to everyone’s house to announce the news. Luckily, Marnie had been at home and was able to share Lewis’s excitement over their new neighbor. Shane didn’t really understand why he was supposed to care.

A few days after her arrival, Lewis had walked into the saloon with her, arm around her shoulder, and announced to everyone in the room that this was the new farmer in town. She gave everyone in the bar a small wave. Shane watched as she bore a tight-lipped smile and tried to free herself from Lewis’s grip.

A small sense of pity gripped him in that moment. He knew how it felt to be shepherded around by a well-meaning, but overbearing guardian; Marnie had done practically the same thing to him when he came to live with her and Jas. Shane loved his Aunt Marnie, so he’d done his best to comply with her need to introduce him to everyone she knew and tried to at least smile at people, but it had been forced. As he caught the eye of the new farmer for just a moment, he gave her a small smile, and he thought he saw her look more at ease, even if it was only for a second.

Emily, the bartender at the saloon, noticed this interaction and giggled. “She’s cute, Shane, huh?”

Shane quickly broke eye contact with the farmer and turned to look at Emily, his face turning slightly red. “I guess,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and taking a long swig of his beer.

“You’re both kind of similar, you know. So quiet, so mysterious.” Emily let out a dreamy sigh and leaned over towards Shane, resting her elbows on the counter. “You guys are practically a match made it heaven, I can just feel it.”

Shane hoped Emily couldn’t tell that his face was growing redder the more she spoke. “Just get me another beer, please, Emily,” he said, hoping it would make her stop.

“Alright, alright,” Emily said, filling up his glass with more beer and sliding it across the counter towards him. She dropped her voice just slightly in volume before adding, “You’ve been having more than usual lately. Everything okay?”

Shane gripped his glass tighter. He hated when people asked him that. “I’m fine.”

He couldn’t quite remember when “just one more” had become his personal mantra, a phrase to be repeated ad infinitum until Gus shut down the saloon in the early hours of the morning and had to kick him out. It began slowly, a beer or two here and there when he first came to the valley after Jas’s parents died. The saloon was the only place in town that felt familiar to him, an echo of the bars he used to frequent with the girl’s father. 

Then he took that job at JojaMart, and his self control came tumbling down along with the drive to keep himself afloat. Hours upon hours of stacking cans onto shelves under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the supermarket made him feel tiny and insignificant, yet somehow burning alive, like an ant under a magnifying glass. 

He was glad the new girl didn’t talk very much. He didn’t want her to know about all of his problems, the things that kept the townspeople whispering about him in fake concern and avoiding him as much as possible. It was better for the both of them if they never even spoke.

* * *

Within a couple of weeks of her arrival, Shane got the sense that the new villager was not what everyone had expected. Unlike her gregarious and popular grandfather, the farmer was quiet and reserved, choosing to spend time toiling on her farm as opposed to mingling and gossiping with the townspeople. During the Egg Festival, she stood off to the side, as if she was trying to blend into her surroundings.

Shane often saw her running errands in town while he was on his way to work, clad in dirty overalls and a flannel shirt and her mousy brown hair tied back in a messy braid. She was the only person who was ever awake as early as him, and they never spoke to one another, only exchanged small nods as they passed each other in the town square.

The first time he heard her voice was during the Flower Dance. Normally, Shane avoided the Flower Dance like the plague. But Jas had worn him down, and he put his pride aside for his goddaughter as he shuffled into the powder blue suit all the bachelors had to wear and headed to Cindersap Forest.

Even Shane couldn’t deny that this year’s dance was a beautiful affair. Cherry blossoms fell delicately from the trees as the breeze shook them, and the sun cast a shine on the day that made everything look more vibrant. Wildflowers dotted the grass around them, sprinkling the landscape with bright colors. The townspeople gathered in clusters, with all the single boys and girls looking furtively at each other, wondering who would ask who to dance.

Shane spent most of the day with Jas, trying to be the loving father figure he knew he was supposed to be. When it came to taking care of Jas, he often felt like he was reaching blindly for something in the dark and missing it every time. But sometimes, like at the Flower Dance, he could play with her for a while and feel like he was doing his job right. 

Shane didn’t like to think about the conditions that had made Jas his real, adopted daughter and not just his goddaughter. It was all sudden and car crashes and grief and involved a part of Shane that he spent a long time suppressing so that he wouldn’t have to truly feel the loss of his best friend and his wife. The valley was always supposed to be his summer, a place where he went to visit his aunt as a kid whenever school let out, not his permanent home. But that’s exactly what it was now, his home, and he was desperately trying to make it work with his new, makeshift family.

He was busy making bracelets with Jas out of the wildflowers when he saw her, the farmer, standing next to them. Instead of her usual dumpy getup, she was dressed in the traditional girls’ dress, a frilly white number with a poofy skirt. She wore a crown made of flowers and sticks on her head, and Shane noticed that some of the petals had peeled off and entangled themselves in her hair. He felt a crazy urge to reach out and brush some of them out with his fingers, but dismissed the thought as quickly as it came, refusing to admit to himself that she looked really nice.

Jas noticed the farmer and ran up to her, tugging on the bottom of her dress to get her attention. “Your flower crown is so pretty. Can I...can I wear it?” 

He watched as she bent down until she was at eye level with Jas. “Of course you can,” she said, taking the crown off her head and placing it gently on top of the little girl’s hair. She had a warm and quiet voice. “You look very pretty.”

“Like a princess?”

“Just like a princess.” She smiled at Jas, and as she did so, he noticed that her features seemed to soften, her jaw slowly unclenching. 

Shane waited a moment before interrupting them, feeling an unusual sense of warmth as he watched the farmer interact with Jas. “You look nice, Jas,” he said and bent down to pick up the girl, careful not to knock the flower crown off her head.

“Is this your daughter?” 

“Not mine,” he said, taken aback by her making conversation with him. “My goddaughter.”

“Well, she’s adorable. I hope you take good care of her,” she said. “I’m Rose, by the way.”

“Shane,” he said.

From out in the field, the music for the Flower Dance began to play, and Rose walked away to go watch the town’s bachelors and bachelorettes twirl around each other. She stood with her back against a tree and her arms folded across her chest. Her jaw was back to its permanent clench, he noticed, and her face had a look almost like longing. 

As he watched her, he found that, strangely, he missed hearing her voice and almost contemplated going up to her and striking up another conversation. Almost. 

* * *

The next time he spoke to Rose, it was under much more uncomfortable conditions. The day after their interaction at the Flower Dance, Shane found her standing outside the door of Marnie’s Ranch, arms crossed and staring down at the ground. 

“Can I help you?” Shane said, unsure what she wanted or why she looked so intensely uncomfortable.

She continued to fidget for a while before answering, still refusing to look him in the eye. “Um, can I come in? I have an...an embarrassing favor to ask.”

Shane hesitated for a moment before responding. “I guess,” he finally said, stepping aside so she could walk in.

Even after she entered the ranch, she still refused to look Shane in the eye, instead choosing to take stock of everything in the main room where the animal shop was. A silence built between the two of them as Shane waited for her to ask for her favor. He began to feel nervous at what it might be.

“Please just tell me what you need from me,” he said. “You’re making me nervous.”

“Sorry,” she managed to squeak out. “I just, um, I got this letter from Mayor Lewis asking if I had seen his purple...shorts.”

Shane furrowed his eyebrows, confused for a second, before he realized what the strange emphasis she placed on the word ‘shorts’ meant, and he turned red. “Oh,” he said. “His shorts.”

“Yes.”

“So, the Mayor is asking you to return his underwear.”

“Yes.”

“And he sent you a letter about this.”

“Yes.”

Another silence grew between them as Shane tried to process what she had just asked.

“I know it’s weird. I don’t know why he asked me,” she finally offered. Her face, like Shane’s, was beet red and flushed. 

“Why do you think they’d be here? Shouldn’t Lewis check his own drawers first or something?” Shane said.

Rose shifted awkwardly, moving her weight from one hip to the other, back and forth. “Marnie.”

Shane’s eyebrows shot up. Obviously he knew about his aunt and Mayor Lewis, but hadn’t connected the current situation to their affair. He was also surprised that the farmer knew about that, as he was aware that Lewis insisted they keep all of their meetings a secret from the rest of the town, and she didn’t seem very involved in the town’s gossip circles. “How did you know about that?”

“People talk,” she said, then paused, shifting her gaze to meet his. “I may not talk much, but I...I listen. More than people think I do.” As he looked into her eyes, Shane recognized a bit of himself in them; she looked self-conscious and a little bit sad. 

“Why did you move here?” he blurted out without thinking. He could see the confusion on her face, the corners of her mouth twitching into a frown. “I just meant, you know, people don’t usually move to Pelican Town without a reason to. I mean, I didn’t exactly intend to be here, it just sort of happened to me.” He knew at this point he was babbling, but he couldn’t stop. He had to find a way to keep her talking, to break the tension that had been created when they locked eyes. 

She stared at a spot on the wall as she spoke. “My dad died, and I hated my job. No reason to stay in Zuzu City when you’ve got no reason left to be there.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Shane knew he should say something meaningful in response. He should open up, tell her something personal in return. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, to reveal his past and have his failures magnified in front of her, to hear her kind voice laced with pity as she told him she was sorry for what he’d been through.

He cleared his throat, and just like that, whatever moment they’d been having was over. “Well, I can check, um, in Marnie’s bedroom. For the shorts.” 

“Right. The shorts,” she said.

Shane ducked into Marnie’s room, and sure enough, Mayor Lewis’s purple boxers were laying on the hardwood floor. “Yep, they’re in here,” he said and grabbed a pair of tongs from the kitchen. No way was he touching that thing with his bare hands. He placed the “shorts” in a plastic bag and handed them to Rose.

“Thanks,” she said. “For helping me.”

“No problem,” he said, and she left the ranch, and he felt an ache in his chest that reminded him that no matter how numb he could get, he still had feelings after all.

* * *

Rose ordered chickens from Marnie a couple of days later, and as she did so, Shane noticed her face was slightly flushed, and she seemed flustered. He thought it was kind of cute and felt heat rush through him as he realized this. She was gone before he could say anything to her.

As usual, Shane was in charge of dropping off the delivery, and he found himself trudging up the road to her farm the next day. The farm looked much different than he remembered; before, it was all tree stumps and rocks and tangled weeds. Now, the farmland was all cleared out and filled with long rows of crops growing strawberries and potatoes for the spring season. 

She was standing outside her newly built chicken coop, as if she’d been expecting him. “Thanks,” she said as he placed the chickens next to her. 

He nodded in response and was about to leave, but something compelled him to stay and talk to her. “Do you have enough hay? For feeding them?” In his time living with Marnie, he’d learned a lot about taking care of chickens and had even grown attached to a few of the ones she kept at the ranch.

“I think so,” she said and reached down to scratch one of the chickens on the head, smiling to herself as she did so. 

“Good,” he said, suddenly feeling nervous. “If you ever...if you ever need help with anything, let me know. I’ve picked up a thing or two from taking care of the animals at Marnie’s.”

She looked up at him, smile still on her face. “Thanks, Shane. I’ll keep that in mind.”

He stood watching her for a few moments before saying something he knew he’d probably regret. “They died in a car crash.”

She seemed taken aback by his sudden outburst, smile fading and eyes widening just a bit. “Who did?”

“Jas’s parents,” he said. “They died in a car crash a few years back. That’s how I ended up in Pelican Town with Marnie. We take care of her.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, then took a deep breath. “I just felt like after you told me that really personal stuff the other day, about your dad, that I should...return the favor I guess.”

“Yeah, I get it,” she said. “Thanks.”

He paused for a brief moment, then turned and left the farm. After telling Rose about his past, he thought he’d feel the kind of sadness and guilt that he usually did when he explained his situation to people, but instead, he felt a sense of freedom, a slight easing of his heavy heart.

So when she found him later that night on the dock, empty cans of beer stacked next to him as he stared blankly into the lake, he knew their conversation would be different this time. He had been having a hollow debate with himself about how easy it would be to just jump in and let go when he heard her footsteps behind him, but didn’t turn around.

“Hi,” she said. Her voice rang out across the dock, clearer than he had ever heard it. She didn’t say anything else after that, but Shane knew she didn’t need to.

She walked over without waiting for a response and took a seat next to him, her legs swinging gently over the water. The lights on the dock illuminated her face in a soft glow, and Shane’s heart skipped an infinitesimal beat, so subtle he could almost deny that he had felt anything while looking at her.

He handed Rose a beer, which she took and finished in a couple of swallows. He smiled in spite of himself. “Fast drinker, huh? Woman after my own heart.”

She laughed, a small and pleasant sound. Just like her voice, he noticed. Then the silence was back again. But instead of embracing it like he usually did, he felt the urge to say something, anything. To make sense of all the painful thoughts running around in his brain that made him feel empty and sad and worthless and washed up. To fill the silence. 

Shane took a deep breath in. “Do you ever...do you ever feel like no matter what you do, you’re just going to fail?”

She placed a hand over his as he began to speak.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, thanks for reading! This was initially supposed to just be a small little one-shot, but I enjoyed writing it so much that I decided to try my hand at expanding it into a series. So, if you're interested in reading more, please check out the other works in the series! There's three one-shot pieces following this one, plus a multi-chapter currently in progress at this link [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901741/chapters/34514367)


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